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"FOR THE GREAT EMPIRE OF LIBERTY, FORWARD!" 



SPEECH 



MAJ.-GEK CARL SCHURZ, 

OF WISCONSIN", 

DELIVERED AT CONCERT HALL, PHILADELPHIA, 



FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 16, 1864. 












Fellow-Citizens : In times like these, when 
the passing events of every day cast eve-r-vary- 
ing lights and shadows upon our situation, when 
our minds are tossed from fear to hope, from 
despondeucy to exultation, and back again to 
doubt, it is necessary that we should now and 
then fix our eyes firmly upon those things and 
ideas which, through all the vicissitudes of the 
hour, must serve as immovable and permanent 
points of direction. 

The affairs of this country have evidently ar- 
rived at a crisis. We are engaged in a war for 
the restoration of the Union. The Union is not 
yet restored, but we hear the cry of Peace. 
The desire of peace is not peculiar to any so- 
cial division or political party — it is cherished by 
all. But the question, What is peace, and how 
is it to be restored ? this is the question to be 
solved by a vote of the people in November. 
Upon this question the mind of every conscien- 
tious citizen ought to be made up, whatever 
events to-day or to-morrow may bring. This 
question once irrevocably answered by the voice 
of the people, the future of the country is decid- 
ed for ever. 

The advocates of peace we can divide into 
four great places : 

First. The rebels themselves ; they desire 
peace on the basis of separation and a final dis- 
solution of the Union. 

Second. A large number of influential men in 
foreign countries, especially in England and 
France, who affect to believe that the war is 
hopeless on our part, and urge us to consent to 
peace on the basis of separation ; and who also 
urge foreign governments to intercede for that 
purpose. 



Third. A numerous political party in the 
loyal States, who advocate, partly, peace at any 
price ; partly, the offering of concessions and 
compromise to the rebels ; but who all express 
the desire that the war shall cease. 

Fourth. The great Union party, who advo- 
cate peace on the basis of the restoration of 
the Union, and a full and complete vindication 
of the authority of the Government, and the 
employment of all the means which the object 
may demand. 

It seems, then, that " peace " is a word of 
wide meaning, and before using it as a political 
rallying-cry, we ought to be careful to ascertain 
and define its true significance. 

The conditions upon which the rebels offer 
peace we all know. It is the recognition of 
their independence ; it is the cession of all the 
States originally belonging to their Confederacy, 
with the addition of Maryland, Kentucky, and 
Missouri and the District of Columbia ; the ces- 
sion of all the Territories west of the Confeder- 
ate States to the Pacific, and probably some di- 
vision of the public property in the hands of 
the Government at the commencement of the 
war. It may be doubted whether modesty is 
one of their virtues. They may indeed be ex- 
pected to yield a point or two. (Applause.) 
Although our people seem to have made up 
their minds about those propositions, there are 
many persons abroad, and a few among us, who 
believe in the possibility of peace on the basis 
of disunion. In England there are men who 
seem quite amazed and indignant that we should 
refuse to treat upon such reasonable conditions. 

Permit me a rapid glance at the two decisive 
questions — first, Whether a settlement can be 



Printed by the Union Congressional Committee. 



^*cA 



made on that basis ? and second, Whether this 
settlement would lead to a durable peace ? 

What shall be the boundary-line? The 
Rocky Mountains would not be too high, nor 
the great lakes too broad, as a barrier between 
two powers exasperated by bitter feuds. But 
the only natural frontier we can find is the line 
of the Ohio and Potomac. Can we concede 
that ? South of it there are two States that re- 
mained true to the Union during the war, Ken- 
tucky and West-Virginia. If we might agree 
to let the original seeeders go, could we be base 
and treacherous enough to sell our friends, to 
deliver them helpless to the tender mercies of 
their mortal enemies ? — for the rebels hate the 
Union people of the slave States more bitterly 
even than they hate Massachusetts, Can we 
abandon them? Impossible! What if the 
rebels do not yield that point ? If we are 
obliged to fight for Kentucky and West-Vir- 
ginia ? Well, then, we can just as well fight 
for the whole Union, the war may go on, and 
there is the end of the settlement. (Applause.) 
But suppose the rebels agree to that territorial 
arrangement. Then the second question arises, 
Will this settlement have the necessary ele- 
ments of stability ? To the Confederacy it will 
be distasteful. As in Kentucky and West-Vir- 
ginia the majority stood by us, so a strong mi- 
nority stood by the rebels, and the same moral 
obligations which bind us to the first bind them 
to the second. The result will be this : the 
minority in Kentucky and West- Virginia will 
unite with the restless and reckless element in 
the Confederacy to precipitate the latter into 
warlike enterprises for the recovery of the two 
States, and the authorities of the Confederacy 
will not long be able to resist. Does this look 
like a solid peace ? So much for the South. 

But can the settlement be satisfactory or even 
endurable to the North ? Remember that the 
supposed boundary-lines will leave the lower 
course and the mouth of the Mississippi in the 
hands of the Confederacy. A foreign power 
holding the mouth of the Mississippi ! In the 
earlier stages of our history it was regarded as 
a self-evident truth that such power must be or 
become our natural enemy. But if at that 
time, when the great Mississippi Valley was a 
silently brooding wilderness, it was thought that 
we must have the mouth of the river, because 
the foreign hand that held it might choke our 
future deve'opment, what shall we say now 
when the Mississippi Valley has become the 
garden of America, the seat of empire ? The 
matter is hardly a fit subject for discussion. 
The Mississippi is the great harbor of the Gulf 
of Mexico ; it is the Atlantic Ocean ramified 
thousands of miles into the heart of the Conti- 
nent. Its great port is not New-Orleans alone ; 
it is St. Louis, it is Cincinnati, and the great 
cities that will spring up on the upper river and 
along the course of the gigantic Missouri. And 
the mouth of the Mississippi in the hands of a 
foreign power ? Let it be so, and half our in- 
dependence is gone. (Applause.) Indeed, free- 
dom of commerce on the great river might be 
stipulated by treaty. But what of that ? Will 
not the South, whenever any quc.-tion of inter- 
national dispute arises, be able to force us to 



any concession or to an offensive war merel » rj 
suspending the operation of the treaty, and by 
tightening its grasp upon the great outlet? Is 
not this as if some person were constitutionally 
permitted to have his grip upon your throat, 
able and ready, whenever he wants anything of 
you, fo stop the circulation of your blood merely 
by squeezing a little ? And this humiliating sit- 
uation any body expects our active, enterprising 
spirited, and brave people to endure ? The dis- 
cussion of this possibility would be a mere 
waste of words. The people of the United 
States have bought the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi, once with their money and twice with 
their blood. (Great applause.) To give it away 
would be merely to produce the necessity of 
buying it a fourth time. Can the South yield 
it ? No. Can the North do without it ? No. 
And then ? 

I might go on to show how the proximity of 
dangerous neighbors immediately on our bor- 
ders — of neighbors whose guns command our 
very capital, and who hold the natural outlet of 
the most productive part of our country — would 
at once oblige us to be in constant readiness for 
attack and defence ; how large standing armies 
would swallow up the financial resources we 
might otherwise devote to the payment of our 
national debt; how the first success of a seces- 
sion movement would inevitably draw similar 
attempts at dismemberment after it ; how the 
minds of the people would be continually agi- 
tated by conspiracies and treasonable enter- 
prises ; how all this Would steadily undermine 
our liberal institution by producing a centraliza- 
tion of power; how military necessity would 
become a standing and commanding element in 
our political life, and gradually transform the 
republic of peace into an engine of war ; but 
it is enough. 

It must be clear to every candid mind, that a 
settlement on the basis of disunion, far from 
securing a permanent peace, will be nothing but 
a mere temporary armistice, and must, after a 
short trial, produce the strengthened conviction 
in the minds of our people, that for the peace, 
liberty, and prosperity of the North-American 
continent, the restoration of the Union is an 
absolute necessity. (Great applause.) And 
what then? The war will be resumed. But 
under what circumstances ! Now we fight the 
South alone, as a legitimate government fights a 
rebellious combination ; then we shall have to 
fight a recognized, fully organized, and im- 
mensely strengthened Confederacy, with her 
European cotton allies at her heels. Now we 
have the Mississippi ; we have the most import- 
ant points on the Atlantic coast ; we have the 
great central position of East-Tennessee; we 
have the heart of Georgia. We shall give up 
all this, merely for the privilege of paving every 
foot of that road again with our dollars and of 
sprinkling every inch of it again with the blood 
of our people ! (Great applause.) my 
good friends in England and France ! do you 
not think, after all, that while we are at it, 
it will be wisest and most economical for U3 to 
go through with it? You, who affect such a 
holy horror of war and bloodshed, do you not 
think, alter all, that it will be a saving of blood 



and calamity if we persevere in a war of which 
we can see the end, instead of running into one 
tha will be interminable ? 

aidon me for devoting so much time to a 
subject upon which your convictions are set- 
tled. Such arguments may also be lost upon 
the peace-clamorers in France and England. 
But it might be well, perhaps, for them to know 
that our people can see no peace but in Union, 
and that their efforts to persuade us to the con- 
trary will indeed fail of their object, but will 
certainly confirm us in, the suspicion that they 
may love peace well, but would love the perma- 
nent dismemberment of this Republic better. 
(Applause.) 

Peace with disunion being impossible, it is 
necessary, then, if for the sake of peace alone, 
that the Union should be restored. And how 
can it be restored ? Either by the voluntary or 
the forced submission of the rebels to the law- 
ful authority of the Government. This leads 
us to the third class of peace-makers. There 
is a party among us which pretends that it can 
secure the voluntary submission of the rebels, 
and thus restore peace. Its policy is defined by 
the following resolution adopted by its National 
Convention : 

^Resolved, That this Convention does ex- 
plicitly declare as the sense of the American 
people, that after four years of failure to re- 
store the Union by the experiment of war, dur- 
ing which, under the pretense of a military ne- 
cessity or war-power higher than the Constitu- 
tion, the Constitution itself has been disregard- 
ed in every part, and public liberty and private 
right alike trodden down, and the material 
prosperity of the country essentially impaired, 
justice, humanity, liberty, and the 'public wel- 
fare demand that immediate efforts be made for 
a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ulti- 
mate Convention of all the States, or other peac- 
able means, to the end that, at the earliest 
practicable moment, peace may be restored on 
the basis of the Federal Union of the Stales." 
This policy is to be practically carried out if 
that party should be intrusted with the powers 
of the Government, of which it seems rather 
confident, inasmuch as it explicitly declares 
" that such is the sense of the American peo- 
ple." I apprehend "the American people" 
will claim the privilege of thinking about this 
matter, and will explicitly declare their sense in 
due time. (Great applause and laughter.) 

_ The resolution contains two positive and defi- 
nite and one rather indefinite proposition. The 
two definite propositions are these : First, that 
the experiment of war as a means of restoring 
the Union is a failure— this is a clear and posf- 
tive statement — and second, that immediate ef- 
forts must be made for a cessation of hostili- 
ties. This is positive also, and, as a sequence 
of the first proposition, can not mean any thin" 
else but that the experiment of war must be 
stopped and abandoned. Here ends the clear 
and positive part of the programme. The 
third, indefinite proposition is, that the war 
must be stopped "with a view to an ultimate 
Convention of all the States, or other peaceable 
means," etc. Mark the words, " with a view 



to ; " this looks to a future period not yet de- 
termined, and is rather foggy. 

The first two propositions can be carried into ef- 
fect by the Democratic party, if it should be the 
sense of the American people to place that party 
in power. It can declare, and to make good its 
declaration, it can make, the war a failure ; and 
it can also stop the war. But the carrying out 
of the third proposition requires the coopera- 
tion of Jefferson Davis and the rebellious peo- 
ple of the seceded States. A Convention of 
the loyal States the Democratic party can have 
but a Convention of all the States, with a view 
to the restoration of peace on the basis of the 
Federal Union, can not be had, unless such be 
the sense of Jefferson Davis and the State3 in 
rebellion. And if such be not the sense of 
Jefferson Davis and the Southern Confederacy, 
what then ? That the Chicago platform saith 
not. But this is just the point the American 
people should like to know. This is no idle 
question; it is just the question upon which 
the whole matter hinges. For, mark you well, 
the resolution does not say, "We demand a 
cessation of hostilities on condition that a Con- 
vention of all the States, or some other peace- 
able means, by which the Union can be restor- 
ed, be agreed to ; if not, we shall continue the 
war ; " but the demand of a cessation is posi- 
tive on the ground that the experiment of war 
has proved a failure ; the war is to be stopped 
on the demand of justice, humanity, liberty, 
and the public welfare, with a view to some- 
thing that may or may not happen. I ask 
again, What if it does not happen ? What if 
Jefferson Davis takes your cessation of hostili- 
ties with a view to laugh at your Convention 
and other peaceable means to restore the Un- 
ion ?_ And this he is most likely, nay, almost 
certain to do, for peace without the condition 
of reunion is just what he wants, and a Con- 
vention and reunion is just what he does not 
want. Well, what then? Will you tacitly ac- 
quiesce in the establio^rucnt of the Southern 
Confederacy ? How can you, since you tell us 
that you are faithful to the Union? Or will 
you resume the war ? How can you, since yon 
declare that the experiment of war has proved 
a failure, and that "justice, humanity, liberty, 
and the public welfare" demand its cessation? 
What, then, in the name of common-sense, will 
you do ? Here we look upon a jumble of con- 
tradictions so glaring that our heads begin to 
reel, and we wonder how it could happen to 
the whole wisdom of a great party in solemn 
convention assembled to hatch out so bottom- < 
less an absurdity. (Laughter and applause.) 

I he gentlemen who come with so amazing a 

proposition before the country will, indeed, tell 

us that Jefferson Davis and his people may 

, agree to terms of peace on the basis of the Un- 

j ion. Pray, where did they obtain their infor- 

| mation ? We have some means of ascertaining 

| the sentiments of the rebel government and of 

I those men who make public opinion in that 

i part of the country. We have the official 

enunciations of their chiefs ; we have the say- 

| nigs of their public speakers; we have their 

| public papers ; we have a large quantity of in- 



4 



formation from private sources published in the 
newspapers of our States. All these things are 
before the people ; every body that has eyes 
may see, and that has ears may hear them. And 
now I appeal to any man that has kept the run 
of the times, did he ever see or hear the least 
indication of a willingness on the part of the 
rebel government or their leading men even to 
consider the proposition of a Convention or 
other peaceable means looking to the restora- 
tion of peace on the basis of reunion ? Is it 
true, or not, that public .sentiment in rebeldom, 
as far as we have means of knowing it, may be 
fairly summed up in what one of their newspa- 
pers said, that, if we presented to them a white 
sheet of paper with the signatures of our au- 
thorities at the bottom of it, on which they, the 
rebels, might write their own conditions of re- 
union, they would scorn to accept it ? Do we 
not hear this repeated daily in numberless vari- 
ations? Did they not ridicule and vilify in the 
most contemptuous manner certain Northern 
Democrats who pretended that they could nego- 
tiate a reunion on the basis of a compromise ? 
But this is not the only tost of the matter. 
The rebels know full well that any offer of 
terms on their part, nay, the mere indication in 
the press of a willingness on their part to come 
back, would materially contribute to increase 
and inflame the divisions now existing among 
us; they know that a half-way offer of a com- 
promise would be a good stroke of policy for 
them ; and now, did you ever hear any one of 
their public men who could speak with any 
thing like authority admit even the idea that 
such a thing was possible? Why, even the 
celebrated peace-adventurers at Niagara Falls, 
who certainly meant mischief and nothing but 
mischief, said in their final winding-up letter 
that they had not the remotest intention of en- 
tertaining any proposition looking to reunion. 
And they and their friends in the North might 
certainly have made capital out of such a thing. 
And even Mr. Benjamin, in his late dispatch to 
Mr. Mason, while evidently laboring to give his 
Northern friends as much comfort as possible, 
could not refrain from stating most emphatical- 
ly that the recognition of the independence of 
the Confederacy was a condition sihe qua non 
for all peace negotiations. Why is this? Be- 
cause a public man of standing in the Confed- 
eracy can not afford even to appear friendly to 
the idea of reunion under any circumstances. 
And yet, in the face of all this, with all this 
evidence before them, knowing all this, the 
men of the Chicago Convention dare to hold 
out to the American people the promise that 
the rebels will agree to a Convention of all the 
States or other peaceable means by which the 
Union can be restored. And upon an hypothe- 
sis so wild, upon an assumption so willful, an 
assumption so completely without the least 
shadow of a foundation, they advise us to stop 
the war with a view to a thing they know they 
can not effect. They dare to advise you to in- 
cur all the disadvantages a cessation of hostili- 
ties would involve for a chance which they 
themselves do not believe in ! 

This is more than absurdity ; or, if you will 
Still call it so, this absurdity is a symptom of 



| something else than a mere confusion of id-eas ; 
it speaks of purposes that dare not avow them- 
selves; of designs that need a disguise; of 
schemes that shun the light. (Applause.) Well 
might the open allies of the rebellion among 
us, the Vallandighams, the Longs, the Woods, 
the Seymours, the Harrises, the Pendletons, 
cast their votes for such a resolution ; for a vir- 
tual abandonment of the war without a condi- 
tion sine qua nnn, only with a view to a thing 
which, as they must know, will never be effect- 
ed in this way, what else can it lead to than a 
tacit recognition of Southern independence? I 
understand the satisfaction with which open 
rebel sympathizers look upon their work ; th< • 
indeed did take a candidate not their first 
choice, but they endeavored to gag and bind 
him, mouth and hand and foot, and although 
they could not defeat him by placing him upon 
such a platform, they have at least disgraced 
him. (Applause.) But what I can not under- 
stand is, that those men who indeed desire 
peace, but also sincerely believe in the necessi- 
ty of restoring the Union, should permit them- 
selves to be taken in by so clownish a j uggle, 
by so transparent a fraud. It is for them that I 
will discuss the matter in its whole length and 
breadth. 

Suppose, then, the party which passed this 
resolution is raised to power. The first official 
act to which it stands pledged by its platform 
will be to propose to Jefferson Davis an imme- 
diate cessation of hostilities. The proud 
Southron, at once recognizing his old friends, 
will forthwith remember that they stand pledg- 
ed to stop the war, because they consider it a 
failure; to stop it in the name of justice and the 
public welfare. He will at once feel himself, 
and in fact be, master of the situation. Know- 
ing all this, he will say: "Certainly, hostilities 
shall be stopped ; you have only to negotiate 
with me as the head of an independent Confed- 
eracy, (see Benjamin's letter;) you have only 
to withdraw your armies from Southern soil ; 
you have Only to take away your navy from 
Southern ports ; you have only to raise the 
blockade of our coast, and hostilities are 
stopped. Then you will have to dismiss the 
negro soldiers from your military service ; and 
as to the matter with a view to which you pro- 
pose to cease hostilities, we will see about that 
1 at the first practicable moment.' " 

I am at once met by an outcry from the De- 
mocratic side : " We shall never do that — 
never!" You will not? Are you not the 
same men who pledged yourselves in the Chi- 
cago platform to stop the war, because it was a 
failure — to stop it on the score of justice, hu- 
manity, liberty, and the public welfare, merely 
with a view to a thing which, as you well know, 
will never happen, unless the rebels be forced 
to it — and now cry War ! war that is a fail- 
ure, war that is against justice and what all ? 
But, you say, we did not mean it so. Why, 
theu, did you say it so? (Laughter.) But do 
you really know what you will do ? Let me 
see who you are, and I will tell you what you 
are capable of doing. You are the same men 
who, from 1848 to 18fi0, went the whole dis- 
graceful way from the Wilmot Proviso to the 



Lecompton Constitution, from free soil to the 
forcing of slavery upon free soil, protesting at 
every stopping-place, by all that is good and 
great, that you would not go a single step fur- 
ther. (Laughter and great applause.) And 
you will have us believe that you are not going 
to do this or that ! Did you know what you 
were going to do when you went into the Chi- 
cago Convention ? How many of you are 
there who would not have sworn upon their 
sacred honor that they would never vote for a 
resolution like that which was passed — and did 
they not do it ? "I tell you in the face of your 
protestations and those of your candidate, you 
permit yourselves once to be infatuated with 
the idea that you can coax and buy the rebels 
back into the Union by concession, and what- 
ever they may ask of you, you will do it, for it 
is only the first step that costs — and surely, 
Jefferson Davis will not spare you, for his foot 
is too familiar with the necks of his old North- 
ern friends. (Great applause.) The old silly 
cry, " Do not irritate the South ! do not irritate 
it by the blockade ! do not irritate it by the 
armed negroes ! " (laughter,) will again have its 
old sway ; your desires and delusive hopes will 
give birth to the most obsequious schemes, and 
6oon you will be in a state of mind of which it 
will be difficult to say where folly ends and 
where treason begins. 

Still, I will give you the full benefit of your 
protestations. I might describe the ruinous ef- 
fect the temporary withdrawal of our armies, or 
even the temporary raising of the blockade, 
would have upon the future chances' of the war ; 
how hundreds of French aud English vessels 
would fly into Savannah and Wilmington with 
arms and ammunition and clothing and railroad 
iron and machinery, and other things handy to 
have ; how those ships would fly out again load- 
ed with cotton ; how, upon the value of that 
cotton, the Confederate loan would find new 
buyers and their wretched finances would look 
up ; how the whole fighting capacity of the South 
would receive a new and tremendous impulse. I 
might describe all that, but I will forbear. 

There are two measures which, in case of their 
accession to power, the Chicago party would 
most certainly execute. Victims to that most 
ridiculous of all mental diseases, the negropho- 
bia, they would dismiss our two hundred thou- 
sand negro soldiers ; and yielding to that most 
pernicious of all passions, demagoguism, they 
would give up the idea of a conscription. Will 
they not? I dare any one of their public men, 
I dare their candidate, I dare the most bellicose 
of their partisans — I dare them to say that they 
will not do so. And the consequences ? With 
one hand they will deplete and weaken the army, 
and with the other they will throw away the 
means of filling it up and strengthening it. 
Take two hundred thousand negro soldiers from 
the garrisons and posts they are guarding, take 
two hundred thousand white soldiers from At- 
lanta and Petersburgh to fill the places left va- 
cant by the negroes, and I call upon any milita- 
ry authority in this country to say : Will it, or 
will it not, be impossible for our two great arm- 
ies, under Grant and Sherman, to hold the field ? 



" Ketreat ! retreat ! " would be the cry ; and 
it is, perhaps, with a view to this contingency 
that the Chicago Convention has selected its dis- 
tinguished candidate. (Long-continued applause.) 
Do not speak of rapidly filling the vacuum with 
new recruits ; for you give up the conscription, 
and I apprehend your friends in Indiana and Il- 
linois and Ohio, your Sons of Liberty and Amer- 
ican Knights, will be rather slow to rush to the 
field with their imported revolvers. (Laughter.) 
Far from being able to strengthen our army, 
you will rather weaken, dishearten, and demor- 
alize what remains of it. The soldiers witness- 
ing with disgust these senseless and ruinous pro- 
ceedings, suspicion and distrust would creep into 
the ranks, and the brave boys would lose half 
of their strength by losing their confidence and 
faith. 

And then, indeed, the " cessation of hostili- 
ties " would acquire a new aspect. Unable to 
keep the field, far from being able to offer an 
armistice, you might find yourselves obliged to 
approach the rebel chief hat in hand to beg for 
one ; and surely, if he should have the con- 
temptuous magnanimity to grant it, he would 
hardly spare your feelings with his conditions. 
Is that the cessation of hostilities you desire ? 
It is certainly the cessation of hostilities the reb- 
els desire. This kind of armistice will at least 
have one advantage : it will save you the trouble 
of discussing what conditions you will or will 
not propose. The rebels will take that trouble 
off your hands. (Laughter aud applause.) But, 
seriously and soberly speaking, I deem the op- 
position of the Woods and Vallandighams to 
the Chicago nominee a most rash and ill-ad- 
vised movement ; for, if they let him only act 
upon the general idiosyncrasies, the common 
prejudices and impulses of the party, he will as 
certainly and safely ruin the prospects of the 
war as they themselves might have done with 
their ingeniously devised cessation of hostilities, 
which offers to the rebels that which they de- 
sire, together with the privilege of refusing that 
which we desire. The one is a military way of 
doing it, the other a civil one ; the one is " strat- 
egy," the other diplomocy ; and I candidly think 
the difference is not worth quarreling about. At 
all events, it would be well for the peace men to 
set a good example by keeping peace among 
themselves. (Laughter and applause.) 

But I will follow the advocates of the Chica- 
go peace platform into the farthest recesses of 
their argument, which we find, not in their reso- 
lutions, but in their papers. 

They tell us, that while the rebel government 
is for war, the Southern people are for peace ; 
and that we therefore must appeal from the 
rebel government to the Southern people. Cer- 
tainly a good idea. But how carry it out? The 
number of peace men in the South is undoubt- 
edly large. They may fairly be divided into two 
classes: first, Secessionists on principle, who are 
for peace only because they are tired of the war ; 
and second, Union men on principle, who are for 
peace on the basis of reunion. These two class- 
es undoubtedly comprise a large number of peo- 
ple, but probably not strong enough to control 
the rebel government ; for if they are strong 



enough to do so, why do they not do it ? Our 
Chicago men say we must strengthen them. 
Certainly, but how ? 

Why do the secessionists who are for peace 
offer no effective opposition to the rebel govern- 
ment? Because, though in leed sick of the war, 
they would like to have separation along with 
peace. Then it is evident they are not yet tired 
enough of the war. The remedy is simple. "We 
must carry on the war with such terrible energy 
as to make all rebeldom tremble and shake. 
That will make them so tired of the war, that 
after a while they will only be too happy to 
make peace at any price. Is not that clear? 
(Applause.) Now for the Union men in the 
rebel States. There are undoubtedly many of 
them ; all the blacks and a large number of 
whites. Why do they not exercise any decisive 
influence in rebeldom. Because the rebel gov- 
ernment is too strong for them, and keeps thein 
down. What is the remedy ? It is simple. We 
must break the strength of the rebel government 
by dealing it as heavy blows as we can strike. 
That will give the Union men air to breathe, 
and freedom of action. Is not this common- 
sense ? (Applause.) 

But how the secessionists who are tired of the 
war can be made Unionists by stopping the war 
for humanity's sake; or how we can aid the 
Union men, who can not stir, because the rebel 
government is too strong for them, by giving 
the same rebel government a chance to become 
still stronger — that, 1 suspect, it will take the 
while logic and eloquence in Chicago Conven- 
tion assembled to make intelligible to an intelli- 
gent people. (Great laughter and applause.) 

The whole wisdom of the intricate peace poli- 
cy of the Chicago party may be fairly summed 
up as follows: You are struggling with a high- 
wayman who has robbed you of your valuables. 
You are stronger than he, and about to over- 
come him. Suddenly you stop, and say: "Now, 
my good fellow, I will struggle no longer ; I see 
it is a failure on my part ; to struggle longer 
would be against justice, humanity, and our 
common welfare; I let you go, with a view to 
meet you again, and to persuade you to give me 
back, at the most practicable moment, what you 
have stolen." Is not this Bedlam ? (Tremen- 
dous laughter and applause.) 

But now I arrive at a feature of this business 
which places its true character in still clearer 
light. It is well known that some of the lead- 
ing powers of Europe, with whom we are in 
most immediate contact, affect to believe in, be- 
cause they desire, the final dissolution of this 
Republic Whatever motives you may assign 
for this fact — the competition growing from our 
spirit of commercial enterprise, jealousy of our 
constantly growing strength, hatred of our re- 
publican institutions — call it what you will, the 
fact is too thinly disguised to escape recogni- 
tion. Still, I wish you to understand, in speak- 
ing of t!u' t' tidencies of some of the political 
and commercial interests of England and France, 
it is far from me to cast a slur upon the noble 
nations of those countries; fori sine: I 
lieve the cause of univ< rsal lib srtj in tiii- coun- 
try has no truer friends abroad than they are. 

At present, the so-called Confederacy is a 



mere association of political bodies engaged in 
a rebellion against their legitimate Government. 
They are indeed recognized as belligerents, but 
not admitted into the family of nations as an in- 
dependent and equal member. Foreign powers, 
however desirous of making separation perma- 
nent, yet hesitate to enter into open relations 
and cooperation with the Confederacy; first, be- 
cause our Government maintains with firmness 
the justice of our cause, and its inflexible reso- 
lution to bring back the rebellious States ; and 
secondly, because the stigma of slavery rests 
upon the rebellion, and European governments 
have some respect for public opinion in their 
own countries, and for the enlightened judgment 
of mankind. But is it reasonable to suppose 
that they will refrain from doin<* so when they 
will have a plausible pretext ? They would, no 
doubt, be most glad to see us do for them what 
they are ashamed to do for themselves. As 
you, in times gone by — -and I hope gone by for 
ever — were required to do for the slaveholder 
the dirty work he deemed below his dignity to 
do for himself — catch his runaways — so foreign 
powers would rather like you to perform for 
them a hardly cleaner work, which they them- 
selves feel much delicacy about — recognize as 
an independent power a Confederacy founded 
upon the corner-stone of slavery. (Great ap- 
plause.) "Oh '"you say, " they will have to 
wait for that." Will they, indeed? Here is 
the Chicago platform, declaring explicitly as the 
sense of the American people that the war is a 
failure and must be stopped. The war declared 
a failure in the eyes of the whole world ; and 
not only that, but, that it must be stopped on 
the score of "justice, humanity, liberty, and the 
public welfare." And this you cry into the ears 
of England and France, who merely wait to hear 
you say so ! Have not our enemies in those 
countries always advocated the recognition of 
the Confederacy on the ground that the war, on 
our part, was hopeless, unjust, inhumane, tyran- 
nical, and ruinous ? With what, delight the 
London Herald and the London Times will hail 
this declaration ! With what, triumph they will 
point to it ! Is it not admitting all, all they 
have been contending for — hopelessness, injust- 
ice, inhumanity, tyranny, ruin, all ? And now, 
if the American people should be so lost to all 
sense of shame and decency as to indorse this 
declaration at a national election, with what face 
will you stand up before England and France, 
and ask them not to recognize the Confederacy? 
If this war is indeed what you affirm — a failure, 
and hopeless, unjust, inhumane, and ruinous — 
would it not be an act of mercy, of justice, of 
humanity, to step in and stop it ? And do you 
not, by this most infamous declaration, invite 
them to do so ? I will prove to you that this is 
no mere offspring of my imagination. Some 
time aero, Lord Lyons wrote to his Government 
an official dispatch, in which the following pas- 
sage occum (1 : 

" Several of the leaders of the Democratic 
party sought with me, both before and 

after the arrival of the intelligence of Gen. 
McClellan's dismissal. The subject uppermost 
in their minds, while they were speaking to me, 
was naturally that of foreign mediation beiiceen 



North and South. Many of them seemed to 
think that this mediation must come at last ; 
but they appeared to be afraid of its coming 
too soon. It was evident that they apprehended 
that a premature proposal of foreign interven- 
tion would afford the Radical party a means of 
reviving the violent war spirit, and thus of 
defeating the powerful plans of the Conserva- 
tives. They appeared to regard the present 
moment as peculiarly unfavorable for such an 
offer, and, indeed, to hold that it would be es- 
sential to ttffe success of any proposal from 
abroad that it should be deferred until the con- 
trol of the Executive Goverement should be in 
the hands of the Conservative part)/." 

So far Lord Lyons. 

Foreign powers having at last found and 
seized upon a pretext for officially meddling with 
our difficulties, such as your invitation would 
give them — and, indeed, remembering Lord 
Lyons's significant dispatch, this seems to be part 
of the Ciiicago programme — we shall see the 
working of a new agency in the affairs of this 
continent ; an agency which, fortunately, was 
unknown to us as long as the country was one ; 
and that agency is foreign influence. 

The same reasons for which England and 
France desired the breaking up of this union, 
the same reasons will also impel them to do all 
they can to make separation permanent, and the 
whole of their influence, powerful as it will 
be — for the Confederacy will necessarily lean 
upon her European friends — will be thrown 
against reunion. That influence will indeed be 
powerful, for it will not only extend to the Gov- 
ernment, but it will at once run through all the 
channels of trade. And now is there any body 
credulous enough to believe, that against such 
fearful odds you can carry out the timid scheme 
with a view to which you mean .to stop the 
war? Foreign influence, once admittted, as it 
will be by this policy, will have the casting vote 
in all that pends between us and the South. 
We shall not have two great powers on this 
continent, but four, and all but one bitterly 
against reunion. Divide and rule, is the old 
saying ; but not those will rule that are divided. 
(Applause.) Whatever our ultimate decision 
may be after such developments, whether to 
resume the war at once, or to acquiesce in sep- 
aration, and then, after a short breathing spell, 
launch into the confusion of a new conflict, 
there is one thing certain: we shall find the 
South so immensely strengthened, that if for a 
people like ours any task could be hopeless, 
this would be hopeless indeed. 

And in the same measure as the South will 
be strengthened by this Chicago policy, so we 
shall be weakened. I have already alluded to 
the demoralization and disintegration of our mil- 
itary strength by its effect. But that is not all. 

At present the enlightened opinion of the 
liberal masses of Europe is on our side. That 
opinion may in a crisis prove strong enough to 
bridle the action of governments. How can 
we expect that opinion to be true to us, if we 
are treacherous to ourselves ? With what face 
can we demand its generous support, if we con- 
fess a failuve and throw doubt upon the justice 
and humanity of our own cause ? You have 



heard of the people of Germany pouring their 
gold lavishly into the treasury of the United 
States. (Applause.) You have heard of a loan 
of a thousand millions having been offered, and 
being now in progress of negotiation. Would 
those people who are standing by us so gener- 
ously in our embarrassments, would they have 
done so, if they did not trust in our ability and 
determination to carry through the war V And 
now they are told by a party that boast of being 
about to grasp the reigns of government, that 
the war is a failure, and being a failure, and 
being unjust, inhumane, and ruinous, must be 
given up. You, who are so clamorous about 
the condition of our treasury, do you call that 
raising our credit abroad, do you call that help- 
ing our finances out of a distressed condition ? 
Truly, if it were your avowed object to reduce 
the Government to total impotency for want of 
means, to render the nation incapable of a vig- 
orous movement, to lay it prostrate in utter 
helplessness at the feet of its enemies, your 
means could not be more judiciously chosen, 
you could not operate with more infernal acute- 
ness. (Great applause.) 

We may ask ourselves : How is it possible 
that a policy so utterly absurb, reckless, and 
pernicious, should find any supporters among 
men whose sound sense and patriotism are not 
completely extinguished ? I find the reason in 
a vague impression, here and there prevailing, 
that the Union and universal good feeling may 
be restored by a policy of conciliation and com- 
promise. I find it in the generous impulses of 
magnanimous hearts, which insist that those 
who are conquered and brought to terms, should 
be reattached to us by a kind and forbearing 
treatment. There is no man in this country 
who would be less inclined than I to listen to 
the promptings of vengeance and resentment. 
But while we are willing to act with a sincere 
desire to heal all wounds by generous accommo- 
dation, do you not see, that before we find a 
field for that magnanimity in offering terms to 
the conquered, the rebels must first be conquer- 
ed and brought to terms'? (Applause.) And 
do you not further see, that if we follow the 
Chicago policy, the chance is rather, the rebels 
will be masters of the situation and bring us to 
terms ? Still, as the feeling I speak of is vague 
and indefinite, and may make itself heard inde- 
pendently of the Chicago platform, I will say a 
word on compromise in its general aspect. 

A compromise with the rebellion offered on 
our part, would necessarily coutain two con- 
ditions : -first, an abandonment of some essen- 
tial point determined by the national election 
of i860, for that was the occasion on which the 
rebels seceded ; and secondly, the stipulation 
that the rebels shall give up the struggle and 
return to their allegiance. Every sensible man 
who has his eyes open, knows that the rebels 
will certainly reject a compromise containing 
the second stipulation, as long as they entertain 
any hope of achieving their independence. The 
question arises, Would it be good policy to ofler 
the first, even by way of experiment '! 

I have already said enough to make it evi- 
dent, that as long as the rebels have confidence 
in their ability to win ultimate success, they will 



insist on their terms and not think of accepting 
ours. We must therefore shake that confidence. 
How shake it ? By a display of superior power, 
and an inflexible determination to carry on the 
struggle to the bitter end. That will make them 
count the cost and consider. But what if we 
show signs of a Bagging spirit, of a shaky de- 
termination V What if we act as if we had lost 
our assurance of our ability to achieve success 
in the game of war ? They will take new hope 
•and courage. And is not an offer of a compro- 
mise, that is, an offer to abandon some essential 
point determined in the election of 1860, an 
indication of a flagging ,and uncertain spirit? 
The matter resolves itself into this : The rebels 
will not think of accepting a compromise, until 
their prospects are so obscured and their power 
so reduced, that they would be obliged to submit 
without it. Thus it will be no more difficult to 
beat them into submission, than it will be to 
beat them into a compromise ; and that accom- 
plished, the compromise will be superfluous. 
But the offer of a compromise before that point 
is reached, will be not only superfluous but 
dangerous ; for by giving evidence of a flagging 
of our own spirits, it will bring new courage 
and hope to the rebels, and thus prolong the 
struggle and postpone the moment when a set- 
tlement can be effected. (Applause.) 

But this is not all. I contend that a compro- 
mise in our case, even if it could be effected, 
would be utterly inadmissible as a measure of 
peace. (Great applause.) 

The word compromise has acquired a certain 
traditional prestige in our political history, so that 
many people pronounce it with a singular super- 
Btitional awe, ahd think nothing is done well that 
is not done by compromise. It is said that the 
Constitution is founded on compromise — and so 
it is. But there is one thing in the Constitution, 
which is not founded upon compromise, which 
does not admit of any compromise, which is, in 
the very nature of things, absolute aud impera- 
tive. It is the principle, that, when the will of 
the majority upon a question constitutionally 
subject to be decided by the majority, is once 
expressed and proclaimed in a constitutional 
form, the minority is absolutely and uncondi- 
tionally bound to submit. (Applause.) There 
is no cavilling about this principle. It is the 
very foundation of all republican government; 
without it the whole republican edifice would 
at once tumble down as a chaotic, shapeless 
mass. It is the balance-wheel of the whole 
machinery. The observance of this principle is 
the fundamental obligation of the citizen. 
Every measure of policy may be subject to com- 
promise, but this fundamental obligation is not. 
It can lie bound to no conditions, for if it were, 
it would cease to be absolute. 

Apply this to our case. A constitutional 
election was held in I860, All constitutional 
requirements were strictly fulfilled. Abraham 
Lincoln received a constitutional majority of 
the votes ; he was made President in a strictly 
constitutional manner. And because tl e ma- 
jority which elected him entertained certain 
opinions of public policy obnoxious to a minor- 
ity, that minority rose in rebellion against the 
Government. You now propose to buy that 



rebellious minority back by relinquishing some 
of the principles held by the majority. You 
do this, because the minority has risen up in 
arms against the constitutionally expressed will 
of the majority. In other words, you, the ma- 
jority, confess yourselves so far conquered as 
you are willing to surrender part of the decision 
of the ballot-box to the force of arms. And 
thus far you declare the fundamental obligation 
of submission to the constitutional verdict of 
the majority not binding; the minority, if it 
please, may force the majority to surrender the 
whole or part of its will. It may do so, for it 
has succeeded iu doing so. The new principle 
you introduce into our political life is this: the 
minority is bound by the constitutional verdict 
of the majority, unless it be strong enough to 
force the majority to concessions ; then it is not 
bound, that is to say, elections are not finally 
decided at the ballot-box, but are afterward open 
to negotiation ; the minority proposes its con- 
ditions of submission to the result, and the 
fighting party wins. Do you know what that 
means? It means the transformation of the 
Republic of the United States into something 
like the old republics of Mexico and South- 
America; it means the government of revolu- 
tionary factions, instead of constitutional major- 
ities ; it means the introduction of rebellion as 
a standing element in our political life. (Great 
applause.) 

Do not accuse me of seeing spectres. Do not 
indulge in the vain illusion that tliis first, great 
abandonment of the fundamental obligation will 
remain an isolated fact. Such precedents are 
prolific. Let it be once known that the con- 
stitutional majority can and may be forced to 
concessions, and the idea will have an irresisti- 
ble charm to reckless and restless minds. The 
composition of our people will no longer be 
what it was heretofore. The end of the war 
will throw a fearful number of adventurous 
spirits upon society, ready, at the call of an 
audacious leader, at any hour, to overleap the 
bounds of the accustomed order of things. 
Warlike habits, added to their warlike tastes, 
will stimulate them to wild enterprises, aud a 
ceaseless war of factions would be to them an 
all too welcome field of adventure. This is the 
material, and you know where to look for the 
leaders. Already, at this moment, the country 
is teeming with unscrupulous demagogues, with 
whom treasonable scheming has become a hab- 
it ; already we hear of large importations of 
arms and ammunition, and their distribution 
among the members of secret organizations; 
already we see in the papers threats of armed 
resistance to the loyal majority, in case certain 
candidates are defeated. And you could be 
willing to open this flood-gate of disorder by 
setting aside the only principle, the great funda- 
mental obligation, that keeps democratic gov- 
ernment in balance ? You would inaugurate a 
system, which, by compromise and concession, 
pays and promises a premium to revolt? Is it 
not, astonishing indeed that among men who 
have such a material stake in social order, as 
merchants and manufacturers, we should find so 
many advocates of that fatal policy? And this, 
they vainly imagine, would lead to peace. The 



9 



sanctioned violation of the great principle which 
alone can maintain internal peace, should lead 
to peace ? Is the peace of Mexico and the 
South-American republics the peace you want ? 
Is a condition of things which will make a re- 
volt as familiar an occurrence as a national elec- 
tion — is that the peace you desire ? This, then, 
is compromise as a peace measure ; if it re- 
mains a mere experimental offer, encourage- 
ment of the rebels and prolongation of the 
war ; if carried into effect, breaking down the 
great safeguard of social order, and inaugurat- 
ing an interminable war of factions, but no 
peace. (Great applause.) And now give me 
leave to sum up what I have said about the 
peace-programme of Chicago. 

In proposing that the war shall be stopped 
without making this proposition depend upon 
any peremptory condition, merely with a view 
to a thing which every body knows will not be 
agreed to, it encourages the rebels to persevere 
in their resistance. 

The result will be, either that the Government, 
if it falls into the hands of that party, will have 
to recognize the independence of the Southern 
Confederacy, or, after a cessation of hostilities, 
to resume the war. 

If it recognizes the independence of the South- 
ern Confederacy, we shall soon have on our hands j 
the complicated and endless wars which, in the 
very nature of things, must grow out of dis- 
union. 

If the Government, after a cessation of hostil- 
ities, resumes the present war for the Union, we 
shall labor under difficulties immensely greater 
than at present, for three reasons : 

1st. From a cessation of hostilities, such as 
proposed, the rebels will derive such advantages, 
and we such disadvantages, that the struggle 
will be almost, hopeless ; and still, as peace is 
impossible with disunion, it will be as necessary 
as ever. 

2d. By declaring before the whole world that 
the war is a failure ; by demanding its cessation 
on the score of justice, humanity, liberty, and 
the public welfare ; by thus declaring the rebels 
in the right and our Government in the wrong ; 
and by thus condemning and virtually abandon- 
ing the war for the Union, they invite foreign 
powers to recognize the rebel Confederacy, and 
to throw their whole influence against an unjust, 
inhumane, tyrannical, and universally ruinous 
war. 

3d. By making the foregoing declarations, 
they turn public opinion in foreign countries 
against us, and discourage the movements now 
going on to give us financial aid ; and all this 
while it is certain, and they make it more so, 
that the war must either be continued after a 
useless cessation, or be resumed at a more or 
less distant period. 

And, finally, by implicitly advocating a policy 
of concession to armed rebellion, they propose 
to set aside the fundamental obligation of sub- 
mission to the constitutional will of the majori- 
ity, to remove the only guarantee of order in 
democratic life, to pay a premium to revolt, and 
thus to open the flood-gates of civil disorder, 
and a turbulent and endless war of factions. 



and inevitable results. And the men who thus 
attempt to create new complications, to increase 
the difficulties, and thus immensely to aggravate 
the calamities of war, these men dare to call 
themselves friends of peace ? What ! Have 
they not had bloodshed enough, that they want 
to make this war interminable? Is not the re- 
bellion strong enough, that they want to add to 
its strength all the aid in money, arms, and ma- 
terial, that foreign friendship can give ? Are 
not our enemies numerous enough, that they 
want to engage for them the aid of foreign gov- 
ments ? Is not our financial condition embar- 
rassed enough, that they want to stop those re- 
sources which open themselves for us abroad ? 
Have we so many friends in the world, that they 
want to ruin us in the opinion of mankind ? 
What ! are they not satiated yet with ruin and 
desolation ? Will it take the sacrifice of new 
and countless hecatombs of men, the sacrifice of 
the fruits of another half-century of sweat and 
toil, to give them their fill ? And these men 
have the brazen front to demand your votes, 
pretending that they will give you peace ! You 
have heard of shore-pirates who set out false 
lights by night on the shore of the ocean when 
the weather is thick and stormy, to deceive and 
draw on the distressed mariner into the fatal 
breakers, and then to plunder the ship in pre- 
tending to save it. Take heed, Americans, and 
beware ! Trust not this light of peace ! This 
light is false ! There is no harbor behind it, 
nothing but rocks, reefs, breakers, shipwreck, 
and ruin ! 

Such is their cry of peace. But what shall 
we say of their patriotism ? Patriotism and that 
platform ! If the rebel emissaries at Niagara 
Falls alone had made it — for they certainly had 
their share in making it — if the friends of the 
rebels in England had made it — that we might 
understand. But that American citizens — sous 
of the great and happy free States — should have 
made this — can that be conceived by a true 
American heart? 

That platform and patriotism ! Show me the 
man who hates us most, he will like it best ! 
Show me the bitterest enemy of this Republic, 
he will crave a chance to vote for it! Show 
me the vilest villain in all rebeldom, who never 
prayed before ; he will sink upon his knees and 
pray for its success ! (Loud cheers and ap- 
plause.) 

When we want to designate all that was hu- 
miliating to our patriotic pride, all that was 
ruinous to the honor and safety of the Union, 
all that was contemptible and dastardly and 
treacherous in the conduct of our public affairs ; 
if we want to designate all this with one name, 
we call it James Buchanan. (Laughter and 
applause.) 

We thought the period in our history which 
is represented by that name, was finally absolved ; 
we thought it might be consigned to oblivion, as 
it was consigned to shame. But, alas! although 
Buchanan is dead and buried, those who indulged 
in the soothing delusion that such a man could 
leave no progeny, find themselves mistaken. 
Behold, a whole brood of young Buchanans has 
risen up and met in convention at Chicago. 



This is the programme — these its immediate | (Continued laughter.) The laurels of their father 



10 



do not let them sleep. I see again the cunning 
twinkle of the eye, I see the white necktie again, 
(great laughter;) they try to adjust it like a halt r 
around the throat of the Republic, to throttle her 
to death. (Continued cheers.) Truly, the sons 
are greatel than the sire. For what he did, we 
may say he did as a weak old man, whose life 
had been spent in a constant exercise of his 
knee-joints ; and who, when the rebellion first 
raised its Gorgon-head, had neither the firmness 
of a patriot nor the courage of a traitor. But 
what they do, they do after thousands of noble 
men have stained the battlefields of their coun- 
try with their precious blood ; after the people 
have poured out their money like water to save 
the Republic; after our invincible navy has 
battered down the Southern forts, and is com- 
manding the Southern waters ; they do it when 
the hero of Vickfiburgh is thundering at the gates 
of Richmond; vhen our victorious flag waves 
over the rampaits of Atlanta, and Victory is 
the cry! (Long-continued cheering.) Ah ! poor 
old man, hide thy head in shame, for thou canst 
no longer claim such proud preeminence in 
baseness. There are those that are greater than 
thou, and whose vaulting ambition laughs thy 
iniquity to scorn. Those are the men who made 
that platform ! (Tremendous applause.) 

And upon that platform they placed a soldier 
by profession as their candidate — a General who 
once commanded the armies of this Republic. 
"Was there e^er a man more cruelly insulted by 
his friends ? Was there ever irony more cut- 
ting ? A General nominated for the Presidency 
for the distinct purpose of trading away other 
generals' victories ! A soldier appointed to 
make the successes of other soldiers useless! 
And he did not resent it by flinging platform 
and nomination into the faces of those who had 
made it, without losing a single moment ! Alas ! 
he did not. Be waited. He endured this most 
outrageous itiiult — this mortal offence — without 
saying a worJ ! Meanwhile murmurs of indig- 
nation arose, like a black cloud, from the army, 
against him who was once their commander — 
from every corner of the country cries of anger 
and contcr.pt burst forth against the infamous 
Chicago surrender. But that was not all. A 
thrill of joy and enthusiasm flashed through the 
heart of the nation when the word came : " At- 
lanta is ours !" And, then, surrender! (Loud 
applause.) 

But now, at least, when the promptings of 
prudence came to the aid of the voice of just 
resentment, now, at last, he spurned the plat- 
form, and he scorned to be the candidate of the 
men that made it, and of the party that adopted 
it ? Oh ! no. For him, I regret to say, the oppor- 
tunity for showing the metal of a great charac- 
ter was lost, lie chose a middle' way. He did 
not repudiate, nor did he approve, but he ig- 
nored the platform and took the nomination. 
This has, at leas!, the charm of novelty. The 
candidate wrote a skilfully worded political let- 
ter, sliowjiig thai the art, Hownot to say it, can 
be brought to as high a degree of perfection as 
the art, How not to do it. (Laughter and 
cheers.) [I is upon record. But that was not 
the first political letter of his life. The General 
had written one about a year ago, before he was 



a candidate. That letter was endorsing the 
principles and advocating the election of Judge 
Woodward to the Governorship of Pennsylva- 
nia. And that letter is on record too. Who 
was Judge Woodward? You know better than 
I can tell you, that he went as far as any of the 
class called peace-copperheads dared to go ; 
peace at any price, surrender, and all. And 
when was this letter endorsing his principles 
written ? The circumstances are significant. 
We had just then suffered a very disastrous de- 
feat at the battle of Chicamauga, our Western 
army was in a most critical situation, in Virgi- 
nia the campaign had come to a complete stand- 
still, the affairs of the country looked dark. 
And then the General endorsed the principles 
and advocated the election of a peace-man! 
This is most interesting for the people to re- 
member. Thus we know how he is capable of 
speaking after a defeat. This gives us the ad- 
vantage, since he has now somewhat changed 
his tune after a victory, to conclude with safety 
how he is likely to speak in case of a defeat 
again It is far from me to insinuate that the 
General was dishonest in writing his war-letter; 
nor was he dishonest in writing his letter for 
the peace-man. He means what he says now; 
he meant what he said then. The General is a 
gentleman, and 1 sincerely believe he was honest 
both times. But this kind of honesty is a fair 
indication of the policy we may look for from 
that quarter. While I detest that sort of peace- 
spirit, I am afraid of that sort of war-spirit. 
And this is the war-spirit of a party which 
deemed it necessary to postpone its convention 
from the fourth of July to the twenty-ninth of 
August, to give events time to develop them- 
selves, and to shape their policy accordingly. 

For peace when the horizon of the country is 
gloomy, and for war when it is bright ! Is that 
the kind of patriotism we want ? This fair- 
weather patriotism, which is ready to give up 
the country in the hour of misfortune, although 
it makes a show of standing by the country in 
the hour of success? And upon that shifting 
sandhill you will build the future of the Repub- 
lic ! (Great cheering.) What if to-morrow an 
untoward accident should overtake our armies; 
will it stand the test, or will it give up the 
country again? Remember, that it is in the hour 
of gloom and despondency that the country 
stands most in need of the unswerving devotion 
of her sons! (Loud applause.) Give me the 
man. who, in storm as well as in sunshine, 
amidst the cries of distress as well as the jubilee 
of victory, will stand by the cause of his coun- 
try with a faith unshaken, with a courage un- 
dismayed, with a purpose unbending, and him 
I will call a patriot ; but not those whose firm- 
ness depends upon the revolutions of the wheel 
of fortuue ! '(Enthusiastic cheering.) And this 
kind of firmness will have to stand a singular 
test. We shall have the alarming spectacle of 
an honest but not altogther inflexible character 
in very bad company. 

There is no American who does not know 
that a President's policy is not made by him 
alone, but by those who made him; and there 
is no American who will forget that the strength 
of the vote which nominated this candidate at 



11 



Chicago was far exceeded by the unanimity with 
which the platform was adopted. And now 
ignore the platform and take the nomination ? 
In ancient tales we read of men who, in order 
to enjoy al! the good things of the world, 
pledged their souls to the devil by compact ; 
and they did enjoy the good things of '•'.■'> 
world, but then played the virtuous in order to 
save their souls ; but at the appointed time, the 
devil produced the compact signed with blood, 
and claimed and took the forfeit. And this 
Presidential candidate thinks he can enjoy the 
good things of this world, and then, by playing 
the virtuous, cheat the devil out of his dues ? 
Vain undertaking ! This devil will be too much 
for the man who wrote the Woodward letter, 
and either the good things of this world will not 
be enjoyed, or the forfeit will be claimed and 
taken! (Loud cheers and applause.) 

No, no, this is no jest ! I am in sober earn- 
est, and mean what I say. Either that party 
must go to pieces, or it must be held together 
by bargain and sale. If it goes to pieces, well 
and good; the smaller the pieces, the better. 
(Laughter and cheers.) But if it be held to- 
gether by bargain and sale, what is the price at 
which the support of the surrender men can 
be secured ? What assurances, what secret 
pledges must be given ? And you know well 
enough that those old party-leaders are not the 
men who work merely for the gratification of 
another man's ambition. 

How will it be when the leaders of the sur- 
render party press around the throne and claim 
the forfeit ? Will the new war President then 
lean for strength upon his brother Pendleton, 
that most abject and submissive of all surrender 
Democrats ? 

How magnificent a combination would be this : 
Horatio Seymour as Secretary of State and chief 
of the circumlocution-office ; Seymour, of Con- 
necticut, as Secretary of the Navy ; Yallandigham 
as Secretary of War ; and Fernando Wood, in 
consideration of the peculiar lustre which his 
honesty sheds upon his talents, Secretary of the 
Treasury. (Peals of laughter.) And would such 
a combination, if bargain as a last refuge be re- 
sorted to, would it be more wonderful than the 
harmony of the Chicago Convention? Is not 
the support of all of them necessary ? 

No, no, I am not jesting. If the party be held 
together and the Cabinet should be a complete 
Pandemonium, there would be nothing surpris- 
ing in it. Such arrangements have been seen 
before, when things were working smoothly, 
and when there was no apparent conflict between 
platform and candidate. How, then, may it be 
now, when the necessities of the party are so 
pressing that they must resort to extreme rem- 
edies to save it ? (Cheers.) 

Meanwhile, you will see them walk from voter 
to voter and say, " Are you for war '? So are 
we, my friend; here is our candidate!" or, 
" Are you for peace ? So are we, my friend ; 
here is our platform !" — only in one thing treat- 
ing all alike, in deceiving each other and in de- 
ceiving all ! For when they say, " We are for 
war," may not the answer be, " You lie, for 
here is your platform!" Or, when they say, 



"We are for peace," may not the answer be, 
" You lie, for here is your candidate !" (Cheers 
and applause.) 

Americans, what a spectacle is this ! How 
sad, how loathsome an exhibition ! And it is 
in this way that a great nation is to decide of its 
uture! In this gulf of deception and duplicity 
you would sink the fortunes of your country? 
From my inmost heart, from the very depth of 
my profoundest convictions, I warn you. Out 
of tins, nothing can grow but a peace that can- 
not last, or a war that will not end ; a peace 
without honor and solidity, or a war wifhout 
faith, without nerve, without success, without 
decision. (Great applause.) 

It is with a sense of relief that I turn from 
this fearful labyrinth of confused contradictions, 
of dark arrangements, of continually shifting 
pretences, to another programme of peace policy, 
which has at least the merit of consistency in 
its principles, of unyielding firmness in its pol- 
icy, and of straightforward clearness in its prop- 
ositions. It is the platform of the great Union 
party. (Applause.) Let us examine the wisdom 
of its policy with a view to the restoration of 
peace. Its first resolution reads thus : 

" Resolved, That it is the highest duty of every 
American citizen to maintain against all their 
enemies the integrity of the Union and the 
paramount authority of the Constitution and 
laws of the United States; and that, laying 
aside all differences and political opinions, we 
pledge ourselves as Union men, animated by a 
common sentiment, and aiming at a common 
object, to do everything in our power to aid the 
Government in quelling by force of arms the 
rebellion now raging against its authority, and 
in bringing to the punishment due to their 
crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed against 
it." 

This, at least, is clear and definite. There 
are no "ifs" nor " biits." Starting from the 
conviction that disunion will bring on intermin- 
able conflicts, and that, if, in the interest of fear 
alone, the Union must, absolutely must be re- 
stored — and only our enemies abroad and trait- 
ors at home doubt that — and that the rebels will 
not consent to reunion unless the victories of 
our army and navy bring them to terms — and 
only fools doubt that — it is affirmed that there 
is nothing left to us but to seek peace by a resort 
to arms, by vigor and energy in its prosecution 
of the war, and by a faithful and devoted sup- 
port of the Government in its efforts to secure 
a speedy and decisive victory. This we explic- 
itly declare to be the sense of the loyal Amer- 
ican people. (Applause.) Not one of the points 
we have won is given up ; not one step is done 
backward ; not one advantage gained is jeopard- 
ized by a prevaricative policy ; and while the 
Democratic promise of armistice and premature 
concession, by exhibiting a flagging spirit and a 
vacillating purpose, can only serve to encourage 
the rebels to persevere in their resistance, our 
inflexible determination will make them count 
the cost; and if the Southern people are really 
tired of the war, if they really want peace, they 
will at last have to make up their minds, once 
for all, that they cannot get rid of this war, with 



12 



its burdens and its sacrifices, unless they troy 
peace at the only price at which it can be bought, 
the restoration of the Union. 

And, moreover, this declaration will make 
European governments understand that we do 
not consider this war a failure, nor that we mean 
\ke it so ; and that, if they should conclude 
to give the rebellion countenance, and aid and 
comfort, they will never succeed in changing 
our unalterable determination ; but may, indeed, 
succeed in pressing our resentment beyond the 
limits of mere remonstrance. And as to our 
detractors abroad, who are so anxious for peace 
and the cessation of bloodshed, but still more 
anxious for the breaking up of this Republic ; 
who, when some disaster has befallen us, so 
blaudly endeavor to persuade us that now it is 
time to stop, that now we can endure it no longer, 
that after all separation would be best for both 
parties, (they omit to speak of third and fourth 
parties,) and that our own welfare would be best 
promoted by consenting to it without unnecessary- 
delay, and who, when, in spite of their magnan- 
imous advice, we steadily work on, show their 
little humor by accusing us of heartlessness and 
barbarism, flavoring their urgencies from time 
10 time with a dark rumor of foreign interven- 
tion ; by this declaration we give them to 
understand, once for all, that they might as well 
bridle their tender solicitude ; that the Amer- 
ican people are not acting upon the vast impulse 
of passion, but upon convictions broad and 
deep ; that, according to those convictions, a 
lasting peace is impossible with disunion ; that, 
therefore, whatever sacrifice it may cost, the 
Union must be restored and will be restored ; 
that this is our set purpose, and that they are 
not smart enough to coax us out of it, and, we 
humbly suspect, not formidable enough to 
frighten us out of it. (Great applause). 

And, finally, this declaration will give an as- 
surance to our friends abroad, who are gener- 
ously willing to give us their moral and financial 
aid, that considerations of justice, humanity, 
liberty, and the public welfare urge us not to 
stop the war and abandon our, purpose, but to 
work on with increased vigor and unbending 
perseverance ; that we have faith in the justice 
of our cause, and confidence in the final result; 
that our friends being true to us, we shall be 
true to them ; that they not only will be pro- 
tected against their aid becoming a sacrifice, 
but will once have the satisfaction of having 
contributed to the success of the greatest cause 
of this country. 

And now I appeal to you, Union men, and I 
appeal to you also, Democrats, is this, or is it not, 
the only policy worthy of the great American 
people ? Answer ! 

But here we do not stop. The rebellion be- 
ing beaten down, the rebels being obliged to 
keep peace for the present by the utter exhaus- 
tion of their forces, peace must be secured for 
the future. The Union party presents for this 
object another resolution. It reads thus : 

" Resolved, That we approve the determina- 
tion of the Government of the United States 
not to compromise with rebels, or to offer any 
terms of peace, except such as may be based 
upon an "unconditional surrender" of their 



hostility, ;md a return to their just allegiance to 
the Constitution and laws of the United States, 
and that we call upon the Government to main- 
tain this position, and to prosecute the war with 
the utmost possible vigor to the complete sup- 
pression of the rebellion, in full reliance upon 
ihu self-st ci 'lice, the patriotism, the heroic valor, 
and the undying devotion of the American 
people to their country and its free institu- 
tions." 

While we all agree that hatred and resent- 
ment ought to have no share in the final settle- 
ment of our differences, it is declared that the 
lawful authority of the Government must be 
vindicated in such a manner as to leave the fun- 
damental obligations of the citizen toward it no 
longer in doubt. In other words, if you have 
a matter of principle or of policy to discuss, to 
defend, to carry, there are the means to dis- 
cuss, to defend, to carry it. If you succeed, 
well and good. If you fail, you must try 
again by the same means or give up. But 
whoever rises in rebellion against the will of 
the majority, constitutionally expressed, must 
be brought to submit to it unconditionally, so 
that every man, woman, and child throughout 
this broad land may know that nothing, nothing 
at all, can be made by forcibly resisting that 
will. This point once sternly, inflexibly estab- 
lished, no man will henceforth be tempted to 
embark in an enterprise which is so perilous 
and also so hopeless. 

But the peace of the Republic must not rest 
upon submission alone: it must be placed upon 
a solid foundation, by securing the hearty co- 
operation of the now rebellious people in the 
future development of the restored Union. 
Then, indeed, peace will be perfect. And this 
great object is subserved by another proposi- 
tion submitted by the Union party. It is this : 
" Resolved, That as slavery was the cause, 
and now constitutes the strength of this rebel- 
lion, and as it must be always and everywhere 
hostile to the principles of republican govern- 
ment, justice and the national safety demand 
its utter and complete extirpation from the soil 
of the Republic, and that we uphold and main- 
tain the acts and proclamations by which the 
Government, in its own defence, has aimed a 
death-blow at this gigantic evil. We are in fa- 
vor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the 
Constitution, to be made by the people in con- 
formity with its provisions, as shall terminate 
and for ever prohibit the existence of slavery 
within the limits of the jurisdiction of the 
United States." (Tremendous cheering.) 

The abolition of slavery was urged upon us, 
first, as a measure of justice by the great moral 
laws of the universe; second, as a war meas- 
ure, by the necessities of our situation ; and 
third, as the great measure of reconciliation, 
by the necessity of placing our internal peace 
upon the. basis of political, social, and economi- 
cal harmony. To discuss it as a measure of 
justice or as a war measure is not my object at 
present; but discussing it as a peace measure, 
I boldly assert, that there is nothing that can 
bring about sincere, hearty, and lasting recon- 
ciliation but the abolition oi slavery. 

First, then, as to harmony in our political 



13 



system. Was it not the profound and eternal 
antagonism between slavery and -the fundamen- 
tal principles of our policy, that brought forth 
the strife which at last resulted in open rebel- 
lion '? The friends of despotism in the old 
world were in the habit of sneering at our de- 
mocratic experiment, and of predicting its 
failure ; and when the rebellion broke out, they 
exulted over us and said, that the experiment 
bad already failed. They exulted too soon. 
The experiment was not in danger of failure 
because our political system was democratic, but 
because there was one element in it which was 
anti-democratic, and that rebelled against the 
rest. They have indeed exulted over us too 
soon; for we cast out the unclean spirit, we 
place the democratic experiment upon the 
course of a consistent, harmonious, and health- 
ful development, and its success will be surer 
than ever. 

Secondly, as to social aud economical har- 
mony. What is it that the non-slaveholders of 
the South, the overwhelming majority of the 
Southern people, are fighting for ? Not their 
own interests, but the interests and aspirations 
of the slaveholding aristocracy. This aristocra- 
cy, by its wealth and superior spirit and intelli- 
gence, hold the non-slaveholding majority in a 
moral subjection, little less absolute than that 
of the slaves themselves'.. And upon what does 
that aristocratic superiority rest? Upon the 
system of slavery. Destroy slavery, and you 
will emancipate not only the blacks but the 
whites also. (Loud cheers.) In the place of 
the great aspiration of slavery, which is domin- 
ion, you will place the great aspiration of free 
labor, which is equality ; for the equality of the 
citizens is nothing but the recognized dignity 
of free labor. (Great applause.) The yoke once 
lifted, the Southern people once emancipated, 
they will not let a broken-down aristocracy 
think for them, but they will think for them- 
selves, like freemen ; they will have the aspira- 
tions of freemen, centred in truly free institu- 
tions, which are to be found in the Union. 
Their new dignity and their new aspirations will 
demand the school-house, and the school-house 
will make them look back with contempt upon 
their former wretchedness, and open the charms 
of new prospects and a new activity full to 
their view. These new prospects, this future 
of independence, self-reliance, aud self-respect, 
will make them forget the past, in which there 
was nothing but degradation. Nor is this all. 
The downfall of slavery will open the road to 
property to the poor laboring man. Slavery 
was a huge insatiable land-eater. Slavery 
abolished, the great landed estates, based upon 
and supported by slave-labor, will go to pieces, 
and the pieces 'will fall into the hands of the 
poor laboring man. Instead of the grand pala- 
tial mansion, surrounded with miserable negro- 
cabins, and instead of the wretched hovel in- 
habited by the poor white, we shall soon see 
the neat white cottage in the midst of small but 
flourishing fields, and the interior of that cot- 
tage will be adorned not with the bowie-knife 
and pistol, but with the book-case and every 
evidence of progressive civilization. This will 
go quickly as thought, for the Southern people 



will not be left to work out that development 
alone. Thousands and thousands of Northern 
men, who but recently had been roaming over 
that country with sword and bayonet, and on 
that occasion had made the discovery of the 
truth, will invade it again with spade and 
plough, and machinery, and capital, and know- 
ledge, and a spirit of progressive improvement. 
These invaders will be the peaceable neighbors 
of the invaded, and each one will work for the 
other in working for himself; and all will be 
one people. Thus Southern people will be 
reorganized, regenerated by the emancipation 
of the large majority, also from the rule of a 
powerful few. Then the acrimony of the rebel- 
lion will be blotted out even to the remem- 
brance ; the people will no longer have time to 
t'dnk of the differences of an unfortunate past, 
for they will have to think of the problems of 
a busy present and a hopeful future. (Cheers.) 

But what of the late slave-lord ? Will he for- 
get his rancor also ? What if he does not ? 
His class was always weak in numbers, and the 
system which made it powerful in society is 
gone. Some of the once mighty cavaliers will 
sullenly sink in the flood, and their fossil re- 
mains, flattened and petrified, will be found, 
like those of the antediluvian mastodon, be- 
tween the strata of the new social organization. 
(Cheers.) Curious geologists will dig them 
out, and the children of the South will wonder 
how such monstrous animals could ever have 
existed. (Loud applause.) But others will 
save themselves in the ark of the free-labor 
system. They will in time see the wisdom of 
accommodating themselves to the new order of 
things, and find out at last that it is better to 
be an equal among freemen than to be the 
master and at the same time the slave of slaves. 
(Applause.) And presently the South will bloom 
like the bursting bud of a flower. The immense 
resources of the soil will, as by enchantment, 
spring to light under the magic touch of free 
labor, and her riches will be enjoyed by a free, 
happy, and — who doubts it? — loyal people. 
And then will come the great day when the 
people of the regenerated South will stretch 
their hands across the Ohio and the Potomac 
and say : " Blessed be you, brethren of the 
North ! We were sick and wretched, and you 
have made us well ! Not only our slaves, but 
we also were in bondage, and you have broken 
our fetters ! " (Loud cheers.) 

This will be peace and reconciliation indeed ; 
a reconciliation in obedience to the great moral 
laws of the universe, and to the progressive 
spirit of our age ; a peace founded upon harmo- 
nious cooperation, mutual benefit, and good 
will to all men. Such must be, and such only 
can be, the internal peace of the Union. 

This, then, is the peace-programme of the 
Union party: Peace won by force of arms, 
maintained by an inflexible vindication of the 
majesty of the people, and fortified in the hearts 
of the people by the greatest reform of our cen- 
tury, founded upon justice to all. 

This settlement will secure order, for it fet- 
ters the spirit of rebellion by enforcing the fun- 
damental obligation of the citizen ; it will se- 
cure liberty, for it will cast out the demon 



14 



which a! tempted its' overthrow; it will secure 
prosperity and happiness, for it will throw open 
resources, hitherto untouched or wasted, to the 
unfettered genius of the American people, and 
extend the benefit of popular education into 
the darkest corner of the country. But it will 
do more. Tins settlement will prepare this 
Republic for that power and greatness among the 
nations of the earth, to which a manifest destiny 
points its finger. 

Lord John Russell once defined the Ameri- 
can war as the South fighting for independence 
and the North fighting for empire. I accept 
the word. Aye, the South is fighting for inde- 
pendence; aye, we are fighting for empire, and 
for empire, too, on the very grandest of scales ! 
(Loud cheers.) It is so, and it cannot be other- 
wise. 

What is the independence the South is fight- 
ing for ? Look at it. It is the rending asun- 
der of what naturally belongs together ; it is 
the breaking up of a great Republic which 
promised to throw its peaceful shield over un- 
told millions ; it is the establishment of a Con- 
federacy on tho corner-stone of the most hide- 
ous abomination of the age; it is the introduc- 
tion of incessant strife and all the desolations of 
internal war, where there might have been the 
abode of happy repose and civilizing industry ; 
it is the necessity of turning a large proportion 
of the social forces, which might have all been 
devoted to the pursuit of moral and material 
improvement, to the savage and tyrannical pur- 
suit of attack and defence ; it is the destruction 
of free institutions; it is the interruption of 
progressive civilization ; it is the ceaseless and 
bloody struggle of factions, instead of the tran- 
quil government of public opinion ; it is rest- 
less weakness, instead of peaceful national 
strength ; it is the contempt of the world, in- 
stead of its admiration ; it is the poor and op- 
pressed of the world robbed of their asylum ; it 
is a great young nation robbed of a great and 
happy future. Such is the breaking up of this 
Republic, such is Southern independence. (Ap- 
plause.) 

And what is the empire we are fighting for ? 
It is indeed not a state, with an emperor at its 
head ; it is indeed not like the empire of the 
Romans of old, or of Great Britain in India, 
who subjugated nations, and coined the sweat 
and tears of the oppressed into gold ; it is in- 
deed not like that of the first Napoleon, who 
placed his brothers and minions upon the 
thrones of ruined states, and threw his iron fin- 
gers like a vice around the throats of conquer- 
ed nations. But look at this : here is a coun- 
try of three million three hundred thousand 
square miles, nearly two millions of which are 
capable of a high order of agricultural improve- 
ment ; a country washed by the two great 
oceans on the east and west, and intersected by 
the most maguifieent rivers and strings of 
lakes ; a country able to support more than a 
thousand million of inhabitants. This is the 
geographical character of the empire we are 
fighting for. And now as to the people. This 
country contains over thirty millions to-day, 
and by an estimate far below the ratio of in- 
crease established during the last seventy de- 



cades, it will contain one hundred million in 
fifty years, and five hundred million in a cen- 
tury — and elbow room for many more. And 
for the untold millions that are to inhabit it, we 
hold this country as a sacred trust ; to them we 
have to transmit the foundations upon which 
they can build their peace, prosperity, civiliza- 
tion, and p.ower. We will transmit to them in- 
stitutions free from the vices and encumbrances 
of which European nations vainly strive to de- 
liver themselves ; free from the necessity of 
large and dangerous standing armies ; free from 
that pernic'ous centralization of power which 
springs from the dangers occasioned by the 
close proximity of powerful and hostile neigh- 
bors ; free from the blight of an aristocracy, 
and free from the curse of slavery. (Loud ap- 
plause.) We will transmit to them liberty and 
equal rights, secured by laws respectable and 
respected ; we will transmit to them a social 
organization in which every human being can 
enjoy the fruits of his labor with dignity and 
independence ; we will transmit to them a full 
abundance of the means which promote the 
untramelled development of the moral and ideal 
element in human nature. We will transmit 
to them an untarnished national honor ; we will 
transmit to them a power under whose shield 
the oppressed of the world will feel secure, and 
whose flag no king nor combination of kings 
will dare to touch. These blessings we will 
transmit to them in the frame of a Federal 
Constitution, the rational form of self-govern- 
ment, elastic enough for ever so many hundred 
millions of citizens, leaving every individual and 
every community free to work out their own 
progressive development in their acknowledged 
spheres, while binding all together in a bond of 
strength. In one word, we mean to build up a 
Republic, greater, more populous, freer, more 
prosperous, and more powerful than any state 
history tells us of ; a Republic having within 
itself all that can make a people great, good, 
and happy, and being so strong, that its pleasure 
will be consulted before any power on earth will 
undertake to disturb the peace of the world. 
(Loud cheering.) This, my Lord John Russell, 
is the empire we are fighting for, and this em- 
pire we mean to have. (Great applause.) 

The nations of olif Europe stand aghast and 
look with silent terror aud amazement at the 
Titanic grapple, at this life-or-death struggle be- 
tween the Roundheads and the Cavaliers of 
America, between the army of the future and 
the army of the past. They have seen us sur- 
prised by a gigantic and well-organized rebellion, 
as by a thief in the night : we had no army, no 
navy, no arms, no war-funds in the treasury ; they 
have seen us create army and navy out of nothing 
in the twinkling of an eye, and the people pouring 
out their untold millions of money, as if it had 
not cost a drop of sweat to earn them. They 
have seen defeat come upon us with such stun- 
ning force, that the nation seemed to reel under 
the blow. And they cried failure, as now the 
allies of our enemies here are crying failure. 
But then they saw this nation quietly gather up 
its strength, and like the silent waves of tho 
ocean roll against the bulwarks of rebellion. 
Another repulse equally stunning, and " fail- 



15 



ure " again, but again the wave rolls on with in- 
creased and tremendous momentum. And so 
they see the fearful game sway to and fro, dis- 
aster set at defiance with grim stubbornness, 
victory wrung from the grasp of an unwilling 
fortune, until at last the Mississippi is ours, un- 
til the Atlantic coast is fringed with our con- 
quests, until the glorious Farragut (great cheer- 
ing) has battered down the forts of Mobile and 
swept the Southern waters, until the restless 
Sherman has dug his bloody way into the heart 
of Georgia, (continued cheering,) and until the 
indomitable Grant, whose unbending mind, in- 
sensible to disaster, is doggedly clinging to the 
heels of victory, has laid his iron hand upon 
the ramparts of Richmond. (Tremendous ap- 
plause.) And old Europe asks : Are they not tired 
yet? See here, old Europe; this is the fourth 
year of the war. All rebeldom is swept clean 
by a merciless conscription. The President of 
the Un ted States calls again for half a million 
of men, and from all hills and valleys resounds 
the old song, " We are coming, we are com- 
ing ! " and over five thousand men a day vol- 
unteer for the bloody work of achieving their 
country's destiny. (Great applause.) 

Europe does not understand this inexhausti- 
ble perseverance, this bull-dog tenacity. Eu- 
rope does not know the American. She looks 
upon him as a cold, dry, matter-of-fact creature, 
whose soul is filled to its full capacity with busi- 
ness calculations and the mean cares of every- 
day life. Europe is mistaken. There is a pro- 
found idealism in the soul of the American, 
which breaks forth in its full force only on great, 
occasions. The American believes in the great 
destiny of his country, believes in it with that 
unconquerable, immovable, religious, fanatic 
faith, to which the greatness of the difficulties 
to be overcome appears as nothing compared 
with the greatness of the object to be achieved. 
This faith lives not only in the head of the man 
of thought and far-seeing speculation ; it hovers 
over the plough of the farmer, over the anvil of 
the mechanic, over the desk of the merchant ; 
it is the very milk with which the American 
mother nourishes her baby. This faith has put 
our armies into the field and set our navy afloat ; 
as in France, every soldier is said to carry the 
marshal's baton in his knapsack, so in America 
the smallest cabin-lad of the fleet, the meanest 
drummer-boy in the field, carries in his soul the 
great ideal of his country's destiny. (Great 
cheering.) This faith knows no failure, and if 
it be staggered a moment by the blow of unex- 
pected misfortune, it bounds up again the next 
moment with a wonderful recuperative power. 
No, this faith knows no failure ; for it, no sacri- 
fice is too great, before its onset impossibility 
yields its stubbornness. The rebellion itself 
could not shake it ; no, by the rebellion it has 
gained in intensity. The rebellion has sudden- 
ly lifted this nation from her childhood. Hav- 
ing gone through struggles, the tremendous 
shocks of which not many states would have been 
able to endure, this nation now stands there 
with the inspiring consciousness of mature 
strength. She did not know before how strong 
she was, but now she knows ; and whatever trials 
may be in store for her, fear and weakness will 



have no seat at her council-board. And with 
proud confidence she looks forward to the day, 
when the united power of North and South 
will rally again under the common banner of 
liberty, and when it will be a question of first 
interest to foreign powers, how far, during this 
war, they have provoked the resentment of the 
American people. (Tremendous cheering.) 
Meanwhile, guided by her great faith as by a 
column of fire by night and a column of cloud 
by day, the nation marches forth to do or die for 
the grand republican empire of the future. 

And this great republican empire of the fu- 
ture is no idle dream, no mere empty hallucina- 
tion of a heated brain. The stupendous pros- 
pect is opened by potent fact and the demon- 
strations of reason. This republic cannot but 
be great, if it is one ; but there can be nothing 
but strife, weakness, and decay, if it be divided. 
The questions of peace, empire, national exist- 
ence, liberty, prosperity, civilization — all these 
questions are one and inseparable. In the very 
nature of things, this republic must be great or 
it must die. There is no alternative. The 
great republican empire is there, it is within 
your grasp, if you only remain true to the idea. 

And now hear me, Americans of to-day, and 
mark my words : In the peace which you are 
now struggling for, you will lay the foundation 
of this future greatness, or you will lay in it the 
seeds of decay, disease, and death. Whatevei 
you may have achieved, you have done nothing $ 
if you will not do more. (Great applause.) 
This is the turning-point of your development; 
this is the moment of the final decision ; this is 
the great opportunity. Take care how you use 
it. It will never, never come back. Woe to 
the statesman who now conceives a plan or 
cherishes a sympathy, that is not in accordance 
with this great development. Woe to the party, 
that now tries to lure the people from the glo- 
rious path. Woe to the people if at this so- 
lemn moment they mistake their duty to them- 
selves and to future generations. It is with her 
life that the nation would have to pay for the 
fatal error. (Loud applause.) 

Not to the rebels will I appeal. The slave 
lords, fighting for institutions which are con- 
demned by the unanimous voice of enlightened 
humanity, have set their hearts upon reviving 
what is dead, and the voice of reason and argu- 
ment cannot pierce their fatal infatuation ; and 
their retinue follows them like a flock of sheep. 
Let them fulfil the destiny they have made for 
themselves. Let the dead bury their dead. 
(Applause.) 

Nor will I appeal to those degenerate sons of 
the North who have openly allied themselves 
with the enemies of their country ; who rejoice 
over her disasters and grieve over her victories. 
They present one of those singular examples of 
human depravity, which 'must be seen in order 
to be believed. That a son should mock a 
benignant mother, when she is weeping tears 
of agony and distress, that her smile of pride 
and happiness should make him sad, that can 
hardly be explained upon any psychological the- 
ory. It shows a depth of moral perversity so 
deep and dark, that the ordinary understanding 
cannot sound it, and that even the creative power 



16 



of imagination stands baffled. When I see such 
a man, I feel myself overcome by a feeling of 
profound pity ; pity for a soul that has closed 
itself against those great and generous emotions 
which would unite it in joy and grief with so 
many thousand kindred souls, pity for the sul- 
len miseries of a barren heart. But to reason 
with them would be in vain, for we cannot fol- 
low them iuto the sombre and tangled mazes 
of their motives. We must leave them to the 
infamy they have chosen for themselves. (Loud 
applause.) 

But to you, whose hearts are still open to the 
entreaties of your hopefully struggling country, 
but whose eyes are clouded by party spirit, or 
by the false pride of preconceived opinions, or 
by little resentments, to you I address this last 
appeal. There is the great destiny of your Re- 
public ; the warmest enthusiasm of your hearts 
for it cannot be too fiery, your deepest prayers 
for it cannot be too pressing. You see it before 
you. The means by which it can be achieved 
I have pointed out to you ; no, nQt that, I have 
only reminded you of them, for your own com- 
mon-sense, 3'our own experience, the unani- 
mous opinion of this century, your own con- 
sciences, point them out. these means are 
powerful, but plain, direct, and simple ; and in 
their grand directness and simplicity worthy of 
the tremendous object to be achieved. And 
now you come with your puny trick and shifts 
of compromise? Now you can find any com- 
fort for your souls in the pusillanimous, danger- 
ous, pernicious expedient of the weak and shaky, 
to do things by halves ? Now you can parade 
petty grievances before the world and raise the 
silly cry of despotism, a cry so silly, that those 
who raise it cannot meet each other in the street 
■without smiling ? Now, in the face of this tre- 
mendous stake, you resort to your little cunning 
contrivances to confuse the minds of the peo- 
ple, merely to gain an advantage for a party ? 
Now you cannot set your heel upon the con- 
temptible rankliugs of personal disappointment 
or the groveling animosity of minor differences 
of opinion ? Now insist upon being small when 
the country expects every one of her sons to 
rise to the height of her own destiny ? Now, 
when the fate of the Republic stands upon the 
brink of the most fearful decision, a decision 



which will be irrevocable for ever ? Party ! 
Have you not learned yet that in times of a 
great crisis there can be only a for and against, 
and that all which is half this and half that must 
be ground to dust as between two millstones? 
(Loud applause.) Have you not learned that 
lesson in the contest of 1800 ? Then you will 
learn it now, when your organization is crum- 
bling to pieces like a rotten stick, dangerous for 
him who leans upon it; crumbling to pieces in 
spite of artful duplicity, in spite of trade and 
bargain. This is not a mere accident; it is the 
inexorable logic of things. (Applause.) And 
out of this disgraceful shipwreck you can hesi- 
tate to save the proud privilege of being useful 
to your country ? Not I alone entreat you thus. 
Hear the voice of him, who leads your sons and 
brothers on the field of battle : " The end is 
near; only let the North be true to herself! 
Unity of sentiment and unity of action, and 
victory is sure!" And not he alone. Every 
sigh and moan of the wounded soldier, every 
drop of blood that stains our battle-fields, every 
tear that moistens the pale cheeks of our widows 
and orphans, cries out to you : " Take care 'that 
this be not in vain. Unite for the struggle !" 
(Applause.) 

But,- believe me, it is not from fear of failure 
that I appeal to you. I appeal to you that your 
names may not go down to your children on the 
suspicious list of the doubtful. I wish that the 
country might be proud of all her sons. 

Indeed, whatever you may do, we fear you 
not ; for, although only glorious New-England 
has spoken, (great cheering,) I solemnly declare 
my belief, the people have already decided in 
their hearts. This nation will not be false to 
her great destiny. You try in vain to stop her 
march by throwing yourselves under her feet. 
Come with her if you will, or she will march 
over you if she must. (Long-continued and 
tremendous applause.) In every pulsation 
of the popular heart, in every breeze, there is 
victory; and in the midst of the din and confu- 
sion of the conflict there stands the National 
Will, undisturbed, in monumental repose, and 
gives his quiet command : For the Great Em- 
pire of Liberty, Forward ! (Long-continued 
cheers and applause, and waving of hats.) 



Printed uy Jon* A. Gray & Gekew New-York. 



54 W 



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